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County is short millions for supportive housing

Heartland HOUSED Executive Director Josh Sabo
Heartland HOUSED
Heartland HOUSED Executive Director Josh Sabo

Heartland HOUSED agency says more state and federal help is needed

An estimated $3 million is what it would take to put Sangamon County’s unhoused population in homes.

That’s according to Josh Sabo, executive director of Heartland HOUSED, an agency that oversees county efforts on homelessness. He says state and federal funding falls short.

“We as a community just don't have the resources to develop enough of the programs that are necessary. When you factor in that HUD funding and that the state of Illinois funding, we have over $3 million gap in what’s necessary to create additional permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing,” he said.

There 341 people in the county on a waiting list for those types of housing

The official count of Sangamon County’s homeless population was up 26 percent from 2023 to 2024. The annual federal Housing and Urban Development Point-in-Time count for 2025 is January 22. A team of 20 to 30 people does the tally here each year.

Meanwhile, a statewide group of housing organizations is seeking $100 million from the state’s 2026 budget, which is already expected to be more than 3 billion in deficit.

Overall, the Illinois homeless count grew 116 percent from from 2023 to 2024, largely because of new arrivals from South America and increased housing costs.

The state has spent more than $180 million over the past two years in homelessness prevention, said Bob Palmer, policy director of Housing Action Illinois. “Which is fantastic, but . . . we're starting from such a deficit in terms of the number of shelter beds and permanent housing and homeless prevention resources that we need that type of sustained investment. for many years to come in terms of new resources,” Palmer said. “We need the type of sustained investment that we've seen for the last two fiscal years, for the foreseeable future, for many years to come. Really, in Illinois, we're going to be in a place where we're getting close to actually ending homelessness.”

A fundraising letter from the more than 200 housing groups and other interested organizations noted that on average a homeless person’s life span is about 20 years shorter than for the housed.

Maureen Foertsch McKinney is news editor and equity and justice beat reporter for NPR Illinois, where she has been on the staff since 2014 after Illinois Issues magazine’s merger with the station. She joined the magazine’s staff in 1998 as projects editor and became managing editor in 2003. Prior to coming to the University of Illinois Springfield, she was an education reporter and copy editor at three local newspapers, including the suburban Chicago Daily Herald, She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Eastern Illinois University and a master’s degree in English from UIS.